Vent hood and blower device usable therein



Aug. 10, 1965 K. s. JENSON VENT HOOD AND BLOWER DEVICE USABLE THEREIN Filed NOV. 5, 1962 United States Patent 3,199,435 VENT HOOD AND BLOWER DEVICE USABLE THEREIN Kenneth S. Jenson, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., assignor to Preway, inc, a corporation of Wisconsin Filed Nov. 5, 1962, Ser. No. 235,423 2 (Ilaims. (Cl. 98115) This invention relates to a ventilating hood of the type usable in kitchen installations and the like and further relates to a blower device usable in association with a ventilating hood, such as a built-in kitchen ventilating hood which is adapted for installation with either roof or wall air ventilating duct work.

It is a general object of this invention to provide a new and useful ventilating hood and especially to provide a new and useful blower device for use in a ventilating-hood.

Another object of this invention is to provide a blower device usable in a ventilating hood and employing a new and useful filter and air inlet association.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a blower device for use in a ventilating hood and including a new and useful arrangement of impeller means and air inlet means.

A further object of this invention is to provide a new and useful ventilating hood having a blower unit including a housing, air inlet and exhaust outlet means, a blower mounted in the housing with the blower impeller disposed within a throat passage at the inlet for drawing air through the inlet and exhausting air through the outlet, and a disc shape foraminous filter mounted across the inlet and having its concave surface facing the inlet from the exterior of the housing.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a new and useful ventilating hood having alternately usable air outlet paths from the hood enabling association of the hood with either roof or wall air venting duct work for exhausting air from the hood into such duct work and provided with a removable cover means for blocking either of the .air outlet paths.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the ventilating hood including a blower device mounted therein; and

FIGURE 2 is a partial vertical section through the ventilating hood of FlJURE 1 along line 22 and illustrating the internal assembly of the blower device.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawing and will be described in detail herein an embodiment of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated.

As illustrated in the drawings, a ventilating hood, indicated generally at it is adapted for association with either overhead or wall duct work. Ventilating hood 14 formed generally of a top wall 11, a back wall 12, side walls 13 and a tapered frontal portion 14, and includes exhaust outlet or opening 17 in top wall 11 and exhaust outlet or opening 13 in back wall 12.

Within hood is a blower housing 19 which has a bottom, two sides and a front mounted on the inner surfaces of top wall 11 and back wall 12 of ventilating hood 1t), e.g. by spot welds, to form an enclosed air passage from a blower housing air inlet or opening 23 to either of exhaust openings 17 or 18. Top wall 11 functions as the top enclosing element of the enclosed air passage and dddfi-fidb' Patented Aug. 10, 1965 back wall 12 functions as the back enclosing member of the passage. Thus, housing 19 in association with hood 1t), restricts communication of exhaust outlets 17 and 18 with cooking gases within .the hood so that such gases are exhausted from the hood through the exhaust outlets only after passage through inlet 23.

A blower is mounted within housing 19 and is positioned for drawing air through inlet 23. Hood casing 10 has no bottom and thus air may be drawn into the housing directly through inlet 23 by means of the blower. The blower includes a motor 20 mounted within the housing by suitable bracket means such as indicated at 21 and also includes an impeller of plurality of fan blades 22. The blower is mounted and positioned within housing is so that fan 22 extends into inlet 23. In the illustrated embodiment, the fan blades 22 are positioned to protrude into an inlet throat defined by a circumferential flange 24 surrounding opening 23 and upstanding from the lower wall of housing 19.

Positioned across opening 23 on the exterior side thereof is a filter means in the form of disc shaped foraminous filter 27 which is releasably or removably secured in position by fastening means in the form of tabs 26 and screw member or bolt 29. Tabs 26 are punched from the lower wall of housing 19' and extend downward a'short distance and then horizontally inward toward opening 23, thereby providing a receiver between the tabs and lower wall of housing 19 for slidably receiving the peripheral flat rim or edge 3d of filter 27. The opposing portion of edge 30 is secured against the lower wall of housing 19 by means of threaded thumb screw 29 received in a threaded opening through the bottom wall of housing 19 and having a knurled head extending sufiiciently radially to secure the edge 39 of the filter against the housing bottom wall. Filter 27 may be readily removed, e.g., for cleaning, by unscrewing thumb screw 29 and sliding the filter element forward out of its received association with tabs 26. e The reverse process may be used to replace the filter 27.

A cover member 31 is illustrated blocking exhaust opening 18 in FIGURE 2. Exhaust opening 18 is rectangular and cover member 31 is also rectangular and of slightly larger size than opening 18. The slightly larger size is provided by means of inwardly deviating flange 33 along one edge of cover 31 and by flanges 32 along each of the other three edges of cover 31. Cover 31 is secured in position by inserting flange 33 through opening 18 and placing the cover flush against back wall 12 so that flange 33 engages the inner surface of wall 12 along one edge of opening 18. Flanges 32 rest against the outer surface of wall 12 and one or more of flanges 32 are secured to wall 12 by releasable mounting means in the form of machine screws such as indicated at 34.

Exhaust opening 17 is of the same general size and configuration as opening 18 and cover 31 can alternatively be positioned across opening 17 in the same manner it is shown positioned across opening Iii in FIGURE 2. Thus, cover member 31 is interchangeable with respect to blocking either of the exhaust openings. It is apparent that cover 31 is readily mountable across either opening and readily removable therefrom, e.g., by means of the machine screws.

Housing 19 is provided with an internal divider or bracing member 37 which isolates a forward chamber from the enclosed air passage. Mounted on the front of housing 19 there is provided a lamp means such as light fixture 33. Control on/olf switches for the blower and light respectively are illustrated at 39 and 40. The switches are conventional as is the wiring of the switches for control of the light and blower motor. The wiring will be readily apparent to those in the art, and for simplicity, has not been shown.

It is particularly preferred in the blower device and ventilating hood of the present invention that a disc shaped foraminous filter is disposed across a throat passage defining the inlet to the blower device with the concave side of the filter facing the throat passage and that the fan blades are positioned across the throat passage and extend into the throat passage. This particularly preferred arrangement gives increased blower capacity in the same height of the unit, height often being a limitation in ventilating hood structures. Additionally, the arrangement enables spacing of the fan blades a sufficient distance from the concave surface of the filter to suppress noise which may otherwise be caused by too close association of impeller and filter.

Iclairn:

1. In a ventilating hood having a top Wall and a back wall with an exhaust opening in each, a casing mounted within said hood enclosing both exhaust openings and defining a blower chamber, said casing including a casing bottom wall, an air inlet through said casing bottom wall, a blower mounted in said housing and including an air impeller disposed within said inlet and motor means for driving said impeller to draw air through said inlet into said chamber and to exhaust air through one of said exhaust openings, removable cover means for closing the other of said exhaust openings, a domed filter having a shallow concave side merging at a circular perimeter into a circular flange-shaped edge, a receiver element on said casing bottom wall configurated to slidably receive and mount said edge of said filter at one portion of the perimeter of said filter against .the casing bottom wall with the filter disposed across said air inlet with said concave side facing said air inlet and with said circular perimeter circumscribing the extremities of said impeller, and removable fastening means generally opposing said receiver element and adapted to fasten a second portion of the filter edge, spaced from said first portion, against said casing bottom wall with said first portion of said edge engaged by said receiver element, said receiver element comprising a tab projecting downward from said casing bottom wall and horizontally toward said inlet defining a slot between said tab and easing bottom wall for slidably receiving said first portion of the filter edge in said slot, said removable fastening means comprising a threaded opening through said casing bottom wall adjacent said inlet and a threaded thumb screw receivable in said threaded opening and having a knurled head extending sufficiently to secure said second portion of the filter edge against said casing bottom wall with said thumb screw removably threaded into said threaded opening.

2. In a ventilating hood having a top wall and a back wall with an exhaust opening through one Wall, a casing mounted in said hood enclosing said exhaust opening, an air inlet through said casing, a blower mounted in said casing and including an air impeller disposed within said inlet and motor means for driving said impeller to draw air through said inlet into said casing and exhaust air through said outlet, a domed filter having a shallow concave side merging at a circular perimeter into a circular flange-shaped edge, and means releasably mounting said filter across said air inlet with said con-cave side facing said air inlet and with said circular perimeter circumscribing the extremities of said impeller, said means releasably mounting said filter comprising (1) a receiver element on said casing adjacent said inlet configurated to slidably receive and mount a first portion of the filter edge with the filter edge against the casing and, (2) a threaded opening through said casing adjacent said inlet and a threaded thumb screw removably receivable in said threaded opening, said thumb screw having a knurled head extending sufficiently to secure a second portion of the filter edge against said casing with said thumb screw threaded into said threaded opening with the first portion of the filter edge received by said receiver element.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,139,014 12/38 Greig.

2,836,114 5/58 Weaver 98-115 2,971,451 2/61 Feig 98115 3,064,551 11/62 Stalker 98-115 3,077,825 2/63 JensOn 98115 3,084,609 4/63 Onstad 9840 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,170,013 1/59 France.

888,823 2/63 Great Britain.

ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A VENTILATING HOOKD HAVING A TOP WALL AND A BACK WALL WITH AN EXHAUST OPENING IN EACH, A CASING MOUNTED WITHIN SAID HOOD ENCLOSING BOTH EXHAUST OPENINGS AND DEFINING A BLOWER CHAMBER, SAID CASING INCLUDING A CASING BOTTOM WALL, AN AIR INLET THROUGH SAID CASING BOTTOM WALL, A BLOWER MOUNTED IN SAID HOUSING AND INCLUDING AN AIR IMPELLER DISPOSED WITHIN SAID INLET AND MOTOR MEANS FOR DRIVING SAID IMPELLER TO DRAW AIR THROUGH SAID INLET INTO SAID CHAMBER AND TO EXHAUST AIR THROUGH ONE OF SAID EXHAUST OPENINGS, REMOVABLE COVER MEANS FOR CLOSIN THE OTHER OF SAID EXHAUST OPENINGS, A DOMED FILTER HAVING A SHALLOW CONCAVE SIDE MERGING AT A CIRCULAR PERIMETER INTO A CIRCULAR FLANGE-SHAPED EDGE, A RECEIVER ELEMENT ON SAID CASING BOTTOM WALL CONFIGURATED TO SLIDABLY RECEIVE AND MOUNT SAID EDGE OF SAID FILTER AT ONE PORTION OF THE PERIMETER OF SAID FILTER AGAINST THE CASING BOTTOM WALL WITH THE FILTER DISPOSED ACROSS SAID AIR INLET WITH SAID CONCAVE SIDE FACING SAID AIR INLET AND WITH SAID CIRCULAR PERIMETER CIRCUMSCRIBING THE EXTREMITIES OF SAID IMPELLER; AND REMOVABLE FASTENING MEANS GENERALLY OPPOSING SAID RECEIVER ELEMENTS AND ADAPTED TO FASTEN A SECOND PORTION 